


the mediocre life of a human (or, how to convince your mate to fall in love with you after laughing at his existance)

by eveningdownpour



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Alternate Universe - Werewolves Are Known, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Elves, Fluff and Angst, Football, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Slow Burn, True Mates, Vampires, Were-Creatures, Werewolf Mates, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-14 18:55:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16918446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eveningdownpour/pseuds/eveningdownpour
Summary: A modern New York City with werewolves, vampires, elves, and humans AU, in which an Alpha Werewolf finds himself and maybe a mate too.





	1. Rejection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm back again, with an ultra-edited first 9 chapters, and will be publishing them as a standalone book, one chapter at a time, weekly. After that, the book concludes, and I'm already working on book 2. Sorry about everything, I'm bad at being consistent.

I honestly wasn’t thinking about much for once, allowing waves of electronica to wash over me, carrying my mind away to a magical dancefloor where neither my shitty airways nor awkwardness would bother me and I could dance the night away, showing off the moves I practiced in my roomy basement before moving out here.

Here.

New York City, with it’s gray buildings and gray-er skies, trademark brash attitudes, and air pollution so bad I need a nebulizer every other week.

Fuck. Maybe I was thinking about much. Actually, it totally wasn’t my music that had me so out of it that I had just realized I was two stops past - it was my overabundant thoughts. The dirty interior of the distended, unwieldy bus seemed to taunt me that once again, I’d let my thoughts run off with me. I’ve always been a little bit different, the longing for romance and adventure weren’t quite typical for a skitter-brained human like me. Most of us were so docile and mild, especially compared to Werewolves, the most untamed of the species comprising our society. It wasn’t easy in a world like this when your species was known for being “the most average.” Werewolves were wilder, much more likely to long for romance and adventure, but I definitely wasn’t a werewolf. Between my shit health, average body, and slow reactions, I wasn’t even near the top of a human’s physical condition. A couple years ago, maybe, before I’d stopped working out because I was a lazy piece of shit... and maybe a little because I was too sick for it here in New York, too.

I wished I was a werewolf sometimes; I loved long walks in the rain, and I loved the smell of the woods right after. I wasn't fond of bugs or most of the rest of the outdoors the way a werewolf would be, in fact, I was kind of terrified by most insects, but hey, you can’t win ‘em all. I’ve always believed in love. True love, the kind of love a werewolf, vampire, or elf will get handed to them magically through the mating process, no questions asked. I wanted to dream of being whisked off by a soul mate, but deep down I knew those types of things were for people who were special, usually not even humans at all. So, instead of being hopeful, I mostly just hated them for being given what someone like me would probably never experience... but goddamn if I didn’t want to. Two humans could end up with their soulmate as easily as ending up with someone else, but we can't feel the pull or establish bonds. We really are the shittiest, most average-est species.

Exiting the bus into the nonchalant Wednesday air before I could get tangled in too much thinking again, I resigned myself to the overly long walk back toward my tiny dorm where the best thing that ever happened to me, my computer, waited. Monotonous skyscrapers rose around me, daring me through the thickets of slow pedestrians that moved but didn’t seem to ever go anywhere. The city might be able to take away my health, my driving, my rainy woods, my privacy to dance, and my space to sing alone, but that’s the one thing it couldn’t steal. Because I was mostly resigned to my shitty hand, I was ok with my singular high card - the sheer joy I got from the internet. I didn’t watch Weresports much, or keep up with the hottest elf singers, vampire actors, and the bespeckling of humans who’d made it in the entertainment industry. I just played games with my relatively small number of online friends and it was enough for me. Oh, and sometimes did my schoolwork too.

“Mate,” a deep and powerful voice radiated through my body, stopping both me and my train of thought in its tracks. There was no way this could be happening, I couldn’t possibly be this lucky. “Turn around, I love short girls like you, I can’t wait to see the face of my beautiful mate.” My heart sank through my shoes like drain cleaner swirling down my dorm sink. I knew, even before he grabbed my shoulders and spun me around, that the owner of the voice was going to be disappointed.

I wasn’t disappointed though. As shit as his luck was for getting a below average, plain looking dude who was even further below average in the height department, I guess I’d just won the powerball. For the fifth week in a row. I found myself staring back, or rather, up into the alpha red eyes of a man with a nearly seven foot stature and a massive build that would make a bodybuilder jealous. His dirty blonde mohawk had equally fiery highlights that made me unable to concentrate on even figuring out what he was wearing, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have mattered. I wouldn’t need a pull to ever want this guy, but he sure as hell needed it for my average ass.

But I guess, from the way his face contorted, that pull wasn’t strong enough to overcome the shove of my wildly-below-his-league self. Each wrinkle of displaced flesh was like being stabbed over and over, until his ridiculously handsome face was nearly unrecognizable. His whole body tensed, and I shut down and froze like an embarrassment popsicle. As the moment ticked by, my head kicked into overdrive and I started realizing what all of this meant, or would have, if he hadn’t taken a step back and laughed incredulously, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I’m sorry, but I just won’t accept this.” Before I managed to reboot, the alpha took off and disappeared into the herds of pedestrians jamming the Manhattan sidewalk. Instead of the momentary interaction feeling unreal, it just felt ominous. It felt like... how I feel walking through the woods at home in the rain, but with an awful chill down my spine, instead of a warm mystique invigorating my senses. 

My head finally began working again, and the weight of what just happened crashed down on me. That was my soulmate, my other half, and he had laughed at me. Fuck, I was so pathetic that even being lucky enough to be mated couldn’t save me from my fate of a lonely deathbed.


	2. Another Rejection

My skull felt like it was throbbing, like that tiny human's feelings were already inside my head, but I knew a bond takes longer than that to form. I had all these thoughts and emotions whirling inside me like the teacup ride at Disney World, and my werewolf senses were helping nothing, rather, helped in the negatives. Having the pull still tugging me in his direction, dragging me the opposite direction from my legs like I was on a treadmill going nowhere was doing me absolutely no favors. He’d smelled so fucking good, and the way that he’d moved, his head bobbing to the rhythm of his legs. Fuck, no. I shook my head and made myself angry - why the fuck did he have to be my mate? What would the pack think if I, of all fucking people, came home with some short, plain, MALE human? What would the public think? How could I be their next Alpha, let alone face the guys on my football team?

I needed to shift, go for a run, and just not think, but I also needed to make it in the door and set my shit down first. But everyone would know from the way I took off this morning my call had come, and- suddenly, his fragile face was there, streaked with fat, ugly tears, loneliness calling out to me, and it hurt so fucking much. I stumbled, staggering toward the door handle so I wouldn’t faceplant like some fucking idiot.

I couldn’t even open the door before my sister Tess did, nearly bouncing, and practically screaming, “Where are they? Stop hiding them, Kyle! What’s their name?”, so fast the words were nearly slurred together. Our whole pack was standing around conspicuously near the door, ready to see who I’d brought home. Our pack was large compared to a single-family pack, so I had piqued the curiosity of nearly fifty wolves. A pack had close bonds, similar to a human nuclear family, all of us were as close as if we were all siblings. All of us were permanently mentally linked as a pack, and functionally also acted as the base unit of ‘family’ instead of the nuclear base that human families have. I did my best to stop everything from churning and turning, and opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Tess, sensing something was wrong, stopped bouncing immediately and her face instantly morphed into suspicion. “Kyle... What happened?”

“False alarm?” I tried, but Tess’s eyes went wide and she lunged at my hand and inhaled and I knew my gig was up before it began like a band without a guitarist. Fuck, I’d been feeling so awful I’d forgotten to try to cover up his scent with hand sanitizer or soap or something, but it was too late. Tess’s eyes somehow went even wider and she blurted, “A human male? Where is he, Kyle? I swear we’re not gonna jump him like you think we are we just want to-”

I cut her off, spitting the excuse I’d forced off my tongue with a growl, “Yeah, thanks but no thanks. I’m not interested in a weak human. I’ll find a girl who actually looks like someone I’d want to be with, fuck mates. This whole system is bullshit-,” but now it was my turn to be cut off. With a slap. Dalton was seething in front of me, anger rolling through the archway of the entrance to the pack house out into the night. I was furious. He was wildly out of line for a beta!

My eyes went red and I growled, but he growled back, dangerous and fiery, and hissed, “You want to insult the human mate I had die in my arms, you conceited piece of shit? I don’t understand why you think you’re above your mate, but if you’re so concerned with someone worthy maybe you should go looking in a dumpster.”

I stood still, rooted with shock, too jolted by the challenge to move until my Dad roared from the staircase, “Rejection is a myth, you fucking idiot! Every wolf that tries to reject their bond ends up failing or dead. Your mother and I don’t think our bond is so fake; neither does anyone else in this pack. I will not cede my role as alpha to you, you have no place leading my pack when you act like a pup. You can go party with your asshole football buddies till the rejected bond consumes you, or bring him home and cherish him like a real alpha. Your choice.”

I could smell the disappointment and anger from nearly everyone in the pack as they turned their backs on me. The pups even looked upset, though maybe that was just from the growling, and Tyler came and pulled on my leg. I smiled, but he burst into tears. I attempted to pick him up, but he wriggled until I realized I had to set him down or drop him, so I gave up, releasing him into the now-empty checkered entry hall.

After everyone else had stormed off, my mom approached slowly, choked up. “I thought I raised you better than that. I never liked your football, the way those kids talked, but I never thought-,” she pauses for a deep breath as her emotions get the better of her for a second, “I never thought I wouldn’t recognize my own son.” she turns away from me, leaving me alone, and hurting even worse.

My pack had just turned their back on me. We’re a family. We aren’t a human family either, we can’t live without the closeness of pack - we brush our fingers together when we pass in the halls, we get closer than humans ever do, we leave our scents on each other for comfort, and we constantly remind each other of our presence. Werewolves can’t function without the scent, the touch, the instinctual warmth of pack being together, and I may be an alpha but I’m not god; the pack’s rejection was already getting to my head. I already felt awful, but now it felt like the world had been pulled out from under me; my head was spinning, my nose was overwhelmed, and I vomited, acidic, and almost as disgusting as I felt. I staggered toward the steps but my knees betrayed me like some shitty shakespeare character. Crippled on the floor, I shifted and curled into a ball and fell asleep, and for once, no one came to comfort me. I was alone.


	3. Research

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	4. What it means to be an Alpha

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	5. Anger and Despair

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	6. Amends

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kyle is trying his best


	7. Warm Apologies

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	8. Cherry Juice

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	9. Insecurity like a Mirror

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	10. Realization

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End file.
